Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 24, 1995 TAG: 9504240073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON NOTE: LEDE LENGTH: Long
In a day of hopes raised and dashed in the search for those responsible, a small army of federal and other law enforcement agents continued their still-unsuccessful search for ``John Doe No. 2.'' He is suspected of being one of the two men who rented the 1993 Ford van that became the instrument of the worst incident of domestic terrorism in U.S. history - the destruction Wednesday of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
What appeared briefly to have been a major break in the case, the arrest of a soldier believed to be absent without leave from Fort Riley, Kan., turned cold by day's end. The soldier, identified as David Iniguez, was seized at a home in Muscoy, Calif., and was briefly believed to have been John Doe No. 2. The one suspect under arrest, Timothy J. McVeigh, had served at Fort Riley, but officials later said they had been unable to connect Iniguez to the case.
At the same time, federal agents were seeking a 38-year-old janitor in Michigan, Mark Koernke, for questioning. They have been told that Koernke, leader of a small paramilitary splinter group, and McVeigh once plotted to use explosives to sabotage a National Guard camp in Michigan. They also want to question Koernke about a memo he may have faxed to a Texas congressman shortly before the Oklahoma blast. The memo contained what investigators think may be oblique references to the Murrah building.
Officials said that, at this point, they only want to talk to Koernke and cautioned that this lead - like others - could come to nothing significant.
In Oklahoma City, meantime, the grim task of recovering victims continued. Ray Blakeney, director of the Oklahoma state medical examiner's office, said 74 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage, four fewer than had been reported earlier. The precarious state of the rubble has kept the search at an agonizingly slow pace, and it may take two weeks to pull the remaining bodies out, Blakeney said.
``It's terribly disappointing,'' said Blakeney. He said searchers could see bodies, and body parts, but the debris blocked them from reaching the victims.
Four refrigerated mortuary trucks stood by to receive the human remains.
``There is apprehension, a lot of apprehension,'' said Jon Hansen, the city assistant fire chief, as workers were poised to enter the area that housed the day-care center and the first-floor Social Security Administration offices.
In the shattered remains of the federal building, rescue workers steadily crawled through waist-deep debris to approach a cavity that officials fear will yield the remains of up to 150 more victims.
At the White House, officials announced that Clinton would take a series of steps to increase the government's ability to fight terrorism. Specifically, he will seek legislation establishing a Domestic Counterterrorism Center, under the FBI, and creation of a special fund to be used to help the government infiltrate suspected terrorist organizations.
The Clinton administration also would seek congressional approval of moves to increase the FBI's authority to comb such records as hotel registers, and to search phone logs and get greater access to credit-card records - steps that could draw sharp debate over whether they violate civil liberties and constitutional rights to privacy.
Clinton also directed his administration to replace the Murrah office building, and ordered Attorney General Janet Reno to lead a 60-day high-level review of the vulnerability of federal buildings generally. There are more than 8,000 such structures in the country.
The Baltimore Sun reported Sunday that militia members across the country have reacted with disbelief, fear and suspicion over allegations that suspects held in the bombing had links to a militia group in Michigan.
They fear a backlash against this growing citizen movement that distrusts the federal government, promotes a strict interpretation of the Constitution and fiercely supports the right to bear arms. They insist militia members don't condone murder. They suspect the allegations are an attempt by federal authorities and the media to discredit the movement.
The movement's chief critics, however, the Sun reported, caution that the militias have a public front and a private agenda. ``The private agenda is they are out to use their guns to some day take over the lawful authority of the government,'' said Morris Dees, executive director of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which has been monitoring the militia movement.
In militia circles, reports and rumors have circulated since Wednesday's bombing suggesting that the explosion could not have been the work of a few angry men. Callers to Tom Valentine's "Radio Free America" program in St. Petersburg, Fla., a forum for archconservatives, talked about ``provocateurs.'' They talked about reports that two explosions - not one - were recorded by a seismograph in Oklahoma City.
``This might seem extreme to you, but it's quite possible the United States government orchestrated this attack to use against the militia organizations forming around the country,'' said Andrew Brown, a Delaware Minuteman who condemned the bombing.
by CNB